The Cohdopian smuggling ring was an international crime ring that dealt in counterfeiting and smuggling contraband. It was responsible mainly for the smuggling of ink made from whitcrystal oil (known as Babahlese ink) from Cohdopia and later Babahl, as well as the circulation of counterfeit currency in Zheng Fa, which crippled the country's economy. The ring also stole various valuable artifacts by switching them with fakes as they were being transported between countries. The Amano Group used its international power and influence to finance and facilitate the ring's activities. The ring has no official name and is generally referred to as "the smuggling ring" or "the international smuggling ring". The term "Cohdopian smuggling ring" is used here to give a more specific identification to the ring.

A Cohdopian general named Quercus Alba became Cohdopia's ambassador to the United States. This position was the perfect opportunity for Alba to drive the operations of the smuggling ring. The ring gained control of many American corporations, most notably the Amano Group, which held powerful connections with the legal system as well as other countries.

In 2008 or 2009, the Amano Group came under fire due to its involvement with the smuggling ring. The company leaders put forward a scapegoat, Colin Devorae, whom they claimed had committed the deeds in question. Another employee of the Amano Group, Cece Yew, was the sole witness to the crimes, but Quercus Alba ordered one of his top agents, Manny Coachen, to kill her. However, Coachen was caught on camera, and he was arrested. Alba planted another one of his agents into the trial as Cece's sister "Calisto Yew". Meanwhile, an agent of the Amano Group managed to steal the incriminating footage, and Coachen was thus acquitted. Upon seeing "Calisto's" distress as the verdict was read, detective Tyrell Badd and prosecutor Byrne Faraday vowed to stop the ring at all costs. They joined Calisto and became the Great Thief Yatagarasu. Meanwhile, Colin Devorae was convicted for crimes that he didn't commit, and he was sent to Penn E. Dent Prison. However, he managed to escape and find sanctuary in the Amano household.

Over the next three years, the Yatagarasu cracked down on the smuggling ring's American allied companies one by one, stealing evidence from them and sending it to the media. However, the spy "Calisto Yew" ensured that the Yatagarasu never achieved its true goal. Three years after the KG-8 Incident, Deid Mann, an employee at the Cohdopian Embassy, moved to testify against the smuggling ring, just as Cece Yew had done. Around the same time, Byrne Faraday infiltrated the embassy and stole what would later be known as the Yatagarasu's Key, a key that could be converted into a knife, which unlocked a safe belonging to Manny Coachen containing evidence of his involvement in the smuggling ring.

"Calisto" took care of both threats to the smuggling ring by hiring Mack Rell to kill Mann and then claim to be the Yatagarasu. This made Faraday take an interest and he promptly became the prosecutor for the case. "Calisto" then told Rell to accuse Faraday of being the Yatagarasu during the trial, so that Faraday would be removed from being the prosecutor for the case and forced into meeting with Rell for negotiations. This gave "Calisto" the perfect opportunity to kill both Rell and Faraday, and she took it. Manny Coachen visited the District Court to watch the trial unfold and result in Faraday's murder at the spy's hands. "Calisto" retrieved the Yatagarasu's Key and escaped from the courthouse. Deid Mann and the Yatagarasu were thus neutralized as threats to the smuggling ring. Nonetheless, Tyrell Badd continued his long search for the traitor.

For the next seven years, the smuggling ring continued its activities nearly unabated. During this time, Cohdopia succumbed to civil conflict and split into Allebahst and Babahl, and Alba ensured that evidence from before the conflict that could be used against him was destroyed. Additionally, the ring's counterfeiting activities in Zheng Fa threw its economy into chaos. In response, an Interpol contingent led by Zheng Fa native Shi-Long Lang began to crack down on exports of Babahlese ink, which fueled the counterfeiting operation, and gathered any evidence they could to track down the ringleader. However, the spy "Calisto" was planted within Lang's ranks as his top assistant Shih-na.

In March of 2019, several events that would be instrumental in bringing down Quercus Alba were set into motion. On the 12th, prosecutor Miles Edgeworth was embroiled in the fight between Interpol and the smuggling ring when he investigated the murder of Interpol Agent Akbey Hicks on iFly AirlinesFlight I-390. Edgeworth exposed one of the stewardesses there, Cammy Meele, as an agent of the smuggling ring and Hicks's killer. Shortly afterward, the son of the Amano Group's CEO Ernest Amano was kidnapped, and Shi-Long Lang saw his big break against the Amano Group. Eventually, the kidnapping turned out to have been faked, and Colin Devorae was found dead, turning the investigation into a homicide investigation. Ernest Amano eventually tried to obstruct the investigation when his son was implicated as the killer, and so he was arrested. However, prosecutor Jacques Portsman, another agent of the ring, took over Amano's trial. Nonetheless, that night, Portsman was arrested himself after Miles Edgeworth found that he had murdered detective Buddy Faith. After that, Amano's interrogation led to the seizure of the video that had gone missing from the KG-8 Incident.

Meanwhile, all was not well within the smuggling ring's ranks. Manny Coachen craved more power and began to make his move to usurp Quercus Alba. This involved organizing a goodwill event between the Allebahstian and Babahlese embassies in the United States and having each country's copy of the Primidux Statue tested to determine which one was the real statue. Whichever country had the real statue would gain much political clout in an eventual reunion, and Coachen intended to obtain the real statue so that Babahlese ambassador Colias Palaeno would become the ambassador of Cohdopia, ousting Alba from his position of power. Unfortunately for Coachen, Alba found out about the treachery when his second-in-command kept some of the smuggled goods for himself. Alba dealt with the problem by devising a strategy with Shih-na to kill Coachen and fool the inevitable police presence into believing that the Yatagarasu had returned to kill the leader of the smuggling ring. To cover up his activities, Alba switched the fake Babahlese statue that contained the plate used for making counterfeit bills with the genuine Allebahstian version. He then killed a thief that Coachen had hired to steal the real statue.

However, Alba's elaborate plan failed. Miles Edgeworth, Shi-Long Lang and Franziska von Karma were able to figure out the truth behind the various events that the plan caused, and they tracked down Shih-na, finally ending the legend of the Yatagarasu, before going after Alba. This led to a long standoff at the Theatrum Neutralis between the two embassies, in which Edgeworth picked apart Alba's excuses while Lang secured Alba's removal from ambassadorship and others gathered evidence for Edgeworth. Alba lost the confrontation and was arrested for both murders.

On March 17, Alba and Amano stood trial in American courtrooms for their respective crimes, prosecuted by Miles Edgeworth, and a week later Alba was tried again in the newly reunited Cohdopia, prosecuted by Franziska von Karma. Meanwhile, the counterfeiting operation in Zheng Fa was completely flushed out, freeing the country from the smuggling ring's control. Now leaderless, elements of the ring began to fight with each other for leadership. Shi-Long Lang organized an operation to track down the rest of the ring. The smuggling ring's influence had completely disappeared from Zheng Fa by March 25, 2019, when Zheng Fa's president, Teikun Ō, visited Gourd Lake.

Alba's smuggling ring was a very large operation, of which Miles Edgeworth saw only a fraction as he was tracking down its leader. The ring used its Babahlese ink "exports" to make counterfeit currency bills in Zheng Fa that were virtually indistinguishable from their genuine counterparts. The best way to tell them apart was to burn them, as whitcrystal oil burns green. The ring also caused trouble for several other countries through their thefts of valuable artifacts such as the Alif Red statue.

The smuggling operations were conducted by planting agents within airline companies including iFly Airlines. For example, Cammy Meele used her job as a flight attendant to forge cargo documents and ensure that smuggled cargo successfully reached its destination. The Amano Group and other companies under the ring's control facilitated these efforts, putting their numerous worldwide connections and resources at the crime syndicate's disposal. To protect these companies, agents were also planted in the countries' legal systems. In Los Angeles, district prosecutor Jacques Portsman was given the job of ensuring that cases regarding the ring either never went to trial or were dismissed due to lack of evidence. He accomplished this by making vital evidence "disappear".

Other, more specialized roles included the following:

Calisto Yew/Shih-na - Under her cover as "Calisto Yew", she had two tasks, firstly to aid the smuggling ring in court in her cover as a defense attorney, and secondly to spy on Byrne Faraday and Tyrell Badd so that they never got too close to the truth. As Shih-na, she took advantage of her cover as Shi-Long Lang's assistant to control the information Interpol acquired about the smuggling ring and to provide her real boss with information on the law enforcement agency.

Manny Coachen - The second-in-command of the smuggling ring was tasked with smuggling massive amounts of Babahlese ink out of the country for use in forged bills. He was also given the task of silencing at least one witness.

Quercus Alba - The leader and mastermind of the smuggling ring, Alba used his underlings to protect his crime syndicate and himself, as well as profiting from the operation. However, he was more than willing to sacrifice some of his underlings to protect himself, as was the case when the Yatagarasu ravaged the ring's puppet corporations.

All of the aforementioned have been arrested for their crimes or killed. The remainder of the ring is still at large, though without a leader it has lost considerable influence and direction, losing its battle with Interpol over the counterfeiting operation at Zheng Fa.